This morning on "This Week" former House Speaker Newt Gingrich defended the controversial comments made by Richard Mourdock, in which he suggested that pregnancies resulting from rape were "intended" by God. Gingrich said that the Indiana Republican Senate candidate's words reflected the position of "virtually every Catholic" in the United States.

"My response is, if you listen to what Mourdock actually said, he said what virtually every Catholic and every fundamentalist in the country believes, life begins at conception," Gingrich said. "Now, this seems to be fixated by the Democrats, but the radical on abortion is Obama, who as a state senator voted three times in favor of allowing doctors to kill babies in the eighth and ninth month who were born, having survived late-term abortion."

Gingrich further defended Mourdock and asked why some people, including President Obama's deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, could not "get over" the comments.

"He also immediately issued a clarification saying he was referring to the act of conception, and he condemned rape. Romney has condemned - I mean, one part of this is nonsense. Every candidate I know, every decent American I know condemns rape. Okay, so why can't people like Stephanie Cutter get over it? We all condemn rape."

Gingrich appeared on "This Week" following Cutter, who criticized Mitt Romney for not asking Mourdock to pull an ad featuring the GOP presidential nominee.

"Just this past week we saw it, when he wouldn't take down his ad for Richard Mourdock, who had - you know, it's a now famous comment that it's God's will if a woman gets pregnant through rape. He's not willing to stand up when it matters," Cutter said.

I also asked Gingrich about the upcoming election and he predicted Romney would win the popular vote with 53 percent. He also pushed back against the idea suggested by some that an Obama victory in the Electoral College, but a popular vote loss would cause some in the GOP to characterize the win as illegitimate.

"I mean, we're a nation of law. We're going to obey the law…I think he's actually going to end up winning around 53-47," Gingrich said. "And I think it's very unlikely he can win a significant popular victory vote and not carry the Electoral College."

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